A day before the Super Tuesday primaries, Trump made sure to repeat the fact that he had disavowed Duke. | Getty

Trump blames 'lousy earpiece' for KKK flap

By NICK GASS

02/29/2016 07:45 AM EST

Donald Trump blamed CNN for providing a "lousy earpiece" in explaining his non-answer to the network on Sunday when asked to disavow the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke.

"I'm sitting in a house in Florida with a very bad earpiece that they gave me, and you could hardly hear what he was saying. But what I heard was various groups, and I don't mind disavowing anybody, and I disavowed David Duke and I disavowed him the day before at a major news conference, which is surprising because he was at the major news conference, CNN was at the major news conference, and they heard me very easily disavow David Duke," the Republican presidential frontrunner explained on NBC's "Today."

"Now, I go, and I sit down again, I have a lousy earpiece that is provided by them, and frankly, he talked about groups," Trump said, referring to the question from CNN's Jake Tapper, who asked him about a call from the Anti-Defamation League to denounce the groups endorsing his presidential run. "He also talked about groups. And I have no problem with disavowing groups, but I'd at least like to know who they are. It would be very unfair to disavow a group, Matt, if the group shouldn't be disavowed. I have to know who the groups are. But I disavowed David Duke."

A day before the Super Tuesday primaries, Trump made sure to repeat the fact that he had disavowed Duke.

“Now, if you look on Facebook, right after that, I also disavowed David Duke. When we looked at it, and looked at the question, I disavowed David Duke," he said. "So I disavowed David Duke all weekend long, on Facebook, on Twitter and obviously, it’s never enough. Ridiculous.”

Trump also returned to addressing the long-running prospect of a third-party run if he perceives mistreatment from the Republican Party.

"Well, if they violate the pledge, which they've possibly already done, as you understand — if they violate the pledge, I will do something that will make them very unhappy," he warned. "I have millions of millions of followers."

CNN did not immediately return request for comment on the interview claim. But it's not clear what, if anything, Trump was unable to hear during his interview with Tapper on Sunday.

“Will you unequivocally condemn David Duke and say that you don't want his vote or that of other white supremacists in this election?” Tapper asked.

“Well, just so you understand, I don't know anything about David Duke, OK? I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists," Trump responded. "So, I don't know. I don't know, did he endorse me or what's going on, because, you know, I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists. And so you're asking me a question that I'm supposed to be talking about people that I know nothing about.”

Trump has, on social media, pointed to previous remarks to explain his true opinion.

"I didn't even know he endorsed me," Trump said in response to a question during his news conference to announce Chris Christie's endorsement. "David Duke endorsed me? OK, all right. I disavow. OK?"

Duke hasn't explicitly endorsed Trump, but he did say that voting for anyone else would be "treason to your heritage."

"Voting against Donald Trump at this point, is really treason to your heritage,” he said on the David Duke Radio Program last week. "I’m not saying I endorse everything about Trump. In fact, I haven’t formally endorsed him. But I do support his candidacy, and I support voting for him as a strategic action. I hope he does everything we hope he will do.”